Video: How a Single Family Was Shot Dead on a Street in Gaza

So last December, there was this brief video that was posted on social media. It showed members of a family, the Abu Salahs, dead on a street in Northern Gaza. I’m going to start the story by showing you that video. But just as a warning, it’s extremely graphic. Two brothers lay huddled with their mother, Inshirah. Two other brothers lay on the street, one next to a stretcher. And next to the hand of their father, Saadi, lay a white flag. What struck us about this video is that for all the scenes of death and destruction that we see out of Gaza, what we see on the street is actually quite rare. Normally, when we see evidence of civilian casualties in Gaza, those people have often been killed by bombs or rockets launched from far away. If and when people have been killed by gunfire, the aftermath is seldom captured. But here they were, members of an immediate family, all seemingly killed at once. And as we’ll show, it was Israeli troops who shot them. But what were the circumstances, and why was the family all together? Why were they carrying a stretcher and two shovels? And what about that white flag? When we presented our findings to the Israeli military, they didn’t deny responsibility. They said their forces in the area, quote, “experienced many encounters with terrorists who fight and move in combat areas while wearing civilian clothes.” But our analysis of what happened showed that the Abu Salahs posed no threat, yet were still targeted with clear intention at close range. Here’s the story of who they were, how they ended up on that street at midday on Dec. 6 and how we determined it was Israeli troops who killed them. So the Abu Salah family was displaced from their home in Northern Gaza on Oct. 8, just as Israel launched its military response to the Oct. 7 attacks. It’s been pretty tough to get in touch with people in Northern Gaza because of the war. However, over the course of several months, we were able to get in touch with Hanady Abu Salah. She’s a sister and daughter of the people we see lying dead in the video. She was sheltering in a school just 200 feet away from her family when they were killed and heard the gunfire. Across many conversations with her, Hanady was eager to talk about her family. Hanady said that home ended up being destroyed during the fighting, and that their father had dreamed of rebuilding it after the war. Like many Palestinians, they were forced to flee. They ended up living with other displaced families at a girls high school turned shelter. Still, the violence followed them. This video was filmed by Hanady’s brother Ahmed. Ahmed was one of the brothers killed just weeks later. The school they lived at is here. It’s one of several schools in the immediate area that are now acting as shelters. And just up the road is the Indonesian Hospital. It has a strategic view of the entire area. The makeup and layout of the neighborhood is important to know because at the time of the killings, it was full of civilians coming and going. But the area had also been the site of several clashes between Israeli troops and militants. The I.D.F. has said its purpose there was to root out Hamas fighters operating in and around the Indonesian Hospital, and has generally accused Hamas of using refugee camps as cover for its activities. “The Indonesian Hospital is being used by Hamas to hide the underground command and control center. They use the area around the hospital as a base of terror against Israel today.” The hospital was damaged during I.D.F. operations at least twice in the weeks before the Abu Salahs were killed. [explosion] In one case, after the I.D.F. claimed militants fired from inside the building. Because of the destruction, the hospital could no longer function. After those operations, a video captured several of the brothers inside the hospital helping to clean up the damage. Ahmed. Mahmoud. Yousif. And Srour. It would likely be the same building they were shot from. The night before the killings, witnesses told us they heard the sound of bulldozers at the hospital, signaling that the I.D.F. was back. Satellite imagery shows several structures were destroyed overnight. What happened the next morning set in motion a chain of events which would lead to the shooting of the Abu Salahs several hours later. Hanady said the next morning seemed calmer, so her teenage nephew, Assad, stepped outside to see what had happened overnight. According to Hanady, it was Israeli soldiers, now in control of the hospital, who fired the shot from the complex. We did put this accusation to the I.D.F., but the response that I noted earlier, that militants were in the area disguising themselves as civilians, didn’t specifically address Assad’s death. Hanady sent us a photograph of Assad’s body wrapped in a white burial shroud with blood soaking through it. The file’s data confirms the photo was taken just three hours before his six other family members were killed. There’s another detail about the photograph worth mentioning. The orange stretcher visible beneath the shroud appears to match the type of stretcher seen in the footage of his dead relatives. This also tracks with another detail: the shovels they were carrying. Because according to Hanady, they were on their way back from burying Assad when they were shot. Hanady told us her family first took Assad from the school to this hospital, then back to the school so other family members could say their goodbyes. And finally, they carried him to a cemetery for burial. So the I.D.F. likely saw the family coming and going with the stretcher multiple times to and from the school. Each time, they held their fire until the family headed back to the school after burying Assad. Hanady had been waiting hours for their return and was starting to get worried. Then, around midday, they heard a loud burst of gunfire. Hanady and another person at the scene all said that gunfire was coming from the direction of the Indonesian Hospital. We know the I.D.F. controlled the hospital, not only from witnesses, but from footage released by the Israeli military itself. The footage shows an operation to recover evidence related to the Oct. 7 attacks. Even though its undated, there are clues that place it on the day of the killings. First, look here. The pavement has been torn up. A satellite image taken just two days before on Dec. 4 shows smooth, unbroken pavement in the same location. So the video had to have been filmed after the 4th. Let’s take a look at this structure in the video. A satellite image from Dec. 7 shows the same building here completely destroyed. That means the video had to have been filmed before the satellite image was taken. The video also shows clear skies. Since Dec. 5 was overcast, it must have been filmed on the 6th. Not only that, but the length and direction of the shadows tell us the video was filmed around 9 a.m., showing the soldiers were at the hospital just a few hours before the Abu Salahs were killed. Beyond the hospital, we found the I.D.F. had taken up other positions within visibility and range of the shootings, including at these towers, where soldiers posted photos of themselves on social media taken around the time the family was killed. Other areas in range of the shootings were either occupied by displaced Palestinians or lack a direct line of sight to the family. So now let’s examine the footage of the bodies more closely. We spoke to a forensic pathologist and an expert in crime scene reconstruction to learn more about the shooting. While we weren’t able to find witnesses to the shooting itself, both experts said the state of the family’s bodies indicates the footage was filmed shortly after they were killed. Jonathyn Priest, the former head of the Denver Police Homicide Unit, said that because we see three of the Abu Salah family members huddled together, it, quote, “suggests a potential cowering or defensive position.” He said that this likely meant that they weren’t acting in any sort of aggressive way. He also said it’s likely that some of the shots that killed them were fired as they were already on the ground, attempting to shield each other from the gunfire. Both experts also agreed that all of the family’s wounds were to their upper bodies, which implies they were killed by aimed shots rather than random gunfire. Neither the I.D.F. nor witnesses we spoke to mentioned any fighting between Israeli troops and militants on the street when the family was killed. So that also rules out the possibility that they were killed in a crossfire. In some social media posts, at least one family member appeared to sympathize with Hamas before the Oct. 7 attacks, and Hanady did so too with the attacks themselves. But there’s no evidence these opinions played any role in the family’s killings. The I.D.F. told us that the killing of the Abu Salahs has been referred to military investigators who examine potential cases of misconduct by Israeli forces. But those findings are seldom made public, and human rights groups say that the Israeli military rarely penalizes soldiers for harming Palestinians. Despite our multiple requests for updates on the investigation, the I.D.F. said they had nothing to add. As for the white flag that Saadi Abu Salah carried, it’s a practice we’ve seen used by other civilians in Gaza to signal to I.D.F. troops that they’re not a threat. In several instances, civilians carrying such flags — [gunshot] have still been shot at, including three Israeli hostages using makeshift white flags to identify themselves to Israeli forces. The I.D.F. rarely comments on civilians carrying white flags who were killed, but admitted their mistake after the shooting of the hostages. The I.D.F. has also said Hamas militants have carried white flags as a way to blend in with civilians and hide their movements. The next morning, I.D.F. troops began conducting mass arrests of people left in the neighborhood. The military said those arrests were necessary to determine if Hamas fighters were hiding among civilians. Hanady and her surviving relatives left that day for Central Gaza, but the bodies of her family remained on the street. Several weeks later, Israeli forces withdrew from the area and residents ventured outside. A local reporter filmed video of what at first appeared to be piles of bulldozed rubble. But soon, one could see limbs, a head and a torso, with clothing and wounds matching the Abu Salahs. These were the family’s remains, bulldozed into a pile of garbage not far from where they were shot.